Following the election of Trump, a common sentiment Democrats have expressed online is people placed the price of bread above “X” issue, generally referring to abortion but also about issues of race and the LGBT+ community. To them, it is a horrible thing to place the price of bread over issues of social justice.

But the truth is, for many Americans, the price of bread is legitimately more important than social justice issues. Someone is not a bad person for making the price of bread the issue they vote on. Over a quarter of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, spending 95 percent of their income on necessities. For these people, an increase in the price of bread could mean they have to skip a few meals during the week. When talking about election results, that feeling of financial uncertainty directly dictates who people vote for.

In the election, about eighty percent of people who felt better off than four years ago voted for Harris. About eighty percent of people who felt worse off voted for Trump. When things are bad, people blame the party in power and vote them out. It’s not based on an analysis of what policies a government passed, or the actual effect they had. People vote on personal experience; I could afford this four years ago but now I can’t.

Trump and Republicans understand this concept and do a good job feeding into it. They give people places to put the blame and stir up anger to engage their voter base. Democrats try to take a more analytical approach; you complain about an issue, and they show you a graph explaining why it’s actually not their fault. That doesn’t engage your voter base, nor does it make people feel like you care.

The Democrats have become the party of elites. Harris had majority support in those earning over a hundred thousand dollars a year, which represents only 40 percent of the voter base. With those earning under a hundred thousand dollars a year, Republicans have four percent more support than Democrats.

The gap becomes extremely obvious looking at education. Among those with no college education Harris had 35 percent support. She was only able to get majority support from those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree. They represent just 43 percent of the voter base.

People will always care about the economy and inflation first. For many, social justice issues become important to then only when they have the time and resources to care. Not everyone has to care about a social justice issue, it is the job of the people behind the cause to make people care.

This in large part explains why the gap between educated and uneducated became so large. As well as why Harris failed to win over the working class. When one doesn’t have to worry about whether they can put food on the table, about paying off their utility bills or about losing their job next week, many don’t vote for issues of social justice that don’t directly affect them.

So, in an election where the main issue for both parties was the economy, where Harris was representing the incumbent party of a historically unpopular presidency, where people had been very hurt by extremely high inflation during the start of Biden’s presidency, Harris instead focused on abortion and issues that weren’t universal.

Many people have tried to guilt-trip or use gotchas showing maps relating education to what candidate states were in favor of. The bottom line is that Harris failed to garner support from the American common man, and this is not the gotcha that you think it is. Donald Trump will be the president of the United States because more people trust him to do what is right for them than Harris.

The ironic part of it is that Harris should have won on the economy, especially among the working class. Harris was proposing tax cuts for everyone except for the richest one percent (those earning over $900,000 a year). Giving as much as a seven percent decrease in taxes for those earning under $30,000 a year.

On the other hand, Trump was proposing raising taxes for everyone except for the richest five percent of Americans. Raising taxes the most for the poorest people in America. Harris was estimated to increase the debt by $4 trillion while Trump is estimated to raise it by $8 trillion.

Harris would have provided larger child tax credits, increased support for Medicare and tax incentives for selling to first time home buyers, but she failed in one critical area. Consumer prices were lower under Trump. Trump stated inflation under Biden cost households $28,000 and he was correct in saying this.

Americans were severely hurt by inflation and even if Harris would have been better for the economy, she focused on social justice issues and when talking about the economy was unable to convince people she would be better. Trump won because no matter what you compare it to, the price of bread is more important, and the price of bread was cheaper while he was in office.

Ethan Walz can be reached at [email protected]

The ideas and opinions expressed by the writer are uniquely their own, and do not directly express or reflect that of the Daily Collegian as a whole